u Mens sana, in corpore sano." 

ROBERT COILTON DAVIS. 

PHILADELPHIA. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 

Chap. _j2= /9&„ 
SAe/f 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



£&£ faux-, 





, ^C£ 



!U 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



JAMES EMBBEE, PHILIP PE1CE, 



ELI K. PEICE. 



EEPEIXTEL FROJI THE "HTSTOI1Y OF CHESTER COUSTY, PA." 



PHILADELPHIA: 

LOUIS H. EVEETS. 

1881. 



3f.r, 
,ft 



er 



JAMES EMBREE.* 



The family of James Embree have heretofore traced his 
name and ancestry to Moses Embree, of Egg Harbor, N. J., 
and through a membership with Friends. I have always 
supposed that he had not come there from Europe direct, 
and that his name was not of English origin. Years ago I 
had written to Robert C. Embree, counselor-at-law, in New 
York, for the genealogy of his family, but he had not then 
traced it. When the request came to write this sketch for 
the " History of Chester County" I renewed the correspon- 
dence. He had then, with the aid of Charles B. Moore, 
counselor-at-law, of that city, of antiquarian tastes, com- 
pleted the chain back to John Embree, of Flushing, L. I. ; 
and in a census of the towns of that island, taken by au- 
thority of law in 1698, the name of John Embree appears 
in the list for Flushing, and in the list for Hempstead, 
eleven miles farther east and twenty-one from New York, 
appear the names of Moses Embery and Mary Embery. 



* By Eli K. Price. 



4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

The French Huguenots, terribly persecuted in France 
under Louis XIV., had before that date numerously settled 
in the city of New York, at New Rochelle, twenty miles 
northeast of that city, on the north side of Long Island 
Sound, and at the above villages, on the south side of the 
Sound, and at the west end of the island, where Brooklyn 
now stands. The transition by water from thence was nat- 
ural and easy down the coast of New Jersey to Egg Har- 
bor. The lapse of time would conform with the known 
longevity of the family if this Moses were taken to be the 
father of Samuel, the father of James, born in 1748, and 
would hardly admit of another link in the chain. 

The name seems more French than English, and the 
spelling is thus derived : R. C. Embree writes me that Mr. 
" Milhun, French druggist on Broadway, and very much of 
a gentleman and scholar, told me years ago that he knew the 
name well in Normandy, but there spelled EmbreV' Our 
double ee at the end is to preserve the same sound as the 
accented e in French. Constitutional characteristics in the 
Embree posterity in Pennsylvania strongly attested the 
inherited effects of the religious persecutions in France 
and Ireland by a religious sadness that alternated with the 
natural vivacity of the French and of the Celtic blood of 
the Kirks of Ulster. Their emotions vibrated between the 
heights and depths of religious experiences and a constitu- 
tional cheerfulness. 

The inquiry has been pursued backwards and forwards. 



JAMES EMBREE. 5 

From the " Annals of Hempstead," page 54, under date 
of May 24, 1682, it is shown that Moses Emory and others 
contributed to the support of Jeremy Hobart, minister 
there. April 1, 1687, Samuel Emory is made constable. 
July 3, 1691 (page 56), Moses Emory is assessed £124 
13s. 4d. We next find traces of Moses and Mary Embro, 
or Embree, in New Jersey. 

The minutes of the Monthly Meeting of Little Egg 
Harbor, N. J., show that Moses and Mary Embro, his wife, 
were there — then Friends in that " Quaker Settlement" — 
from 1711 to 1725, this being the meeting record of the 
births of their children : Abigail, b. 18th of 12th mo., 
1711 ; Martha, the 13th of 12th mo., 1712; Sarah, 11th 
of 3d mo., 1715 ; Samuel, 15th of 8th mo., 1717 ; Moses, 
26th of 11th mo., 1714; John, 12th of 11th mo., 1721 : 
Elizabeth, 12th of 6th mo., 1724. On the 14th of 9th 
month, 1717, Thomas Ridgway and Moses Emmory were 
present, and made report of having attended the Quarterly 
Meeting as its representatives ; Moses Emmory gave in the 
certificate to the Monthly Meeting. On the 10th of 4th 
month, 1725, Richard Osborne and Thomas Ridgway 
made report that, in pursuance of their appointment, " they 
had made inquiry after Moses Emmory 's life and conversa- 
tion, and find nothing but that it had been very orderly ;" 
and at a Women's Meeting, held 13th of 3d month, 1725, 
a request was made for a certificate for Mary Embro, for 
her removal into Pennsylvania with her husband ; and it 

1* 



6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

was granted at next meeting, the committee having re- 
ported "her conduct orderly, and diligent in attending 
meeting," etc. 

Abington Monthly Meeting, in Pennsylvania, contains 
the following: 26th of 5th month, 1725, " A certificate 
was produced by Moses Embree and wife from Little 
Egg Harbor, in order to settle within the verge of this 
Monthly Meeting." Minute, 30th of 1st month, 1731 : 
" Oxford Friends having made application for some relief 
for Moses Embree, this Meeting orders each Particular 
Meeting to raise a collection for that pnrpose." Minute, 
28th of 4th month, 1731 : " Paid to Moses Embree for the 
relief of his family in the smallpox, the sum of £4 10s." 
Let us bless the memory of Jenner that we are nearly 
exempt from the scourge ; and all who have the blood of 
Friends in their veins be thankful for the uniform human- 
ity in their ancestors, of whom this act was characteristic. 

" At Haverford Monthly Meeting of Friends, held 13th 
of 5th month, 1732, a certificate was received from Abing- 
ton Monthly Meeting of 29th 3d month, 1732, for Moses 
Embree and wife and daughter Martha, and the rest of the 
children;" and 8th of 11th month, 1735, one was received 
there from Abington for Sarah Embree. The 13th of 10th 
month, 1736, Thomas Thomas and Martha Embry pass 
meeting a second time, " and are left to their liberty," and 
two Friends are appointed and " ordered to see them mar- 
ried, safely united, and bring an account to the next 



JAMES EM B REE. 7 

Monthly Meeting." The 13th of 10th month, 1739, cer- 
tificate was granted for Moses Embree and wife to Oley 
Monthly Meeting (in Berks County). 

Oley Monthly Meeting records, at Maiden Creek, show 
that Moses Embree produced certificate from Haverford 
Monthly Meeting, 5th month 31, 1740, wife and son 
Samuel ; and at same date Mary Embree produced in the 
Women's Meeting a certificate from Haverford. Moses 
Embree, Junior, came from Abington 4th month 27, 
1745, and married Margaret Eleman in 1752. Samuel 
Embree, son of Moses (senior), of Robeson township, Lan- 
caster Co., and married Rachel, daughter of James Lewis, 
of Comru township, Berks Co.* March 10, 1761, 
Samuel bought of Jona. Stephens a tract of 53 acres 
119 perches in Comru, and on May 18, 1769, bought of 
William Thomas a tract of 191 acres 40 perches in Comru 
township. Samuel devised his lands to his sons, James and 
Moses ; and in 1786 James conveys 160 acres in Comru 
to Moses. Samuel died 2d month 24, 1777, leaving 
issue but those two sons.f 

* Robeson township was next southeast of Comru, and is now in 
Berks. 

f The pursuit to the early source of the Embrees in America has 
had the interest of a chase after game, or for new plants or minerals, 
with a zest even more emotional than science or mining profits, for 
it enlisted a human sympathy for those whose blood is yet young and 
fresh in the veins of my children and grandchildren, whose ancestry 



8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Of other children of Moses and Mary Embree, it may be 
added that Abigail, the eldest, married Charles Townsend, 
of Philadelphia ; Sarah married John Hughes, of Merion, 
and (secondly) Owen Humphrey; Moses, Jr., went to 
North Carolina, and probably to Georgia ; John was 
living near Wrightsborough, Ga., in 1800. 

James Embree, son of Samuel Embree, of Comru town- 
ship, Berks Co., and Phebe Starr, daughter of Merrick 
Starr, of Maiden Creek, were married 5th month 15, 
1771, at Maiden Creek. Their children were Samuel, b. 
3d mo. 7, 1772; Merrick, b. 9th mo. 7, 1774; James, 
b. 7th mo. 5, 1776; Phebe, b. 2d mo. 1, 1778. Their 
mother died 2d mo. 15, 1778. 

James Embree, son of Samuel, married, 12th mo. 11, 
1782, Rebecca Kirk, daughter of William Kirk, of East 
Nantmeal, at Nantmeal Meeting. Their children were Wil- 
liam, b. 9th mo. 16, 1783, d. 1st mo. 25, 1865 ; Rachel, b. 
8th mo. 15, 1785, d. 2d mo. 14, 1813 ; Davis, b. 6th mo. 



came through the persecutions the Huguenots and Quakers endured, 
and the trials of successive settlements in new frontiers in the wil- 
derness. The names of those to whom I owe thanks for aid in this 
genealogical pursuit are Charles B. Moore, Robert C. Embree, John 
Jordan, Archelaus R. Tharo, Leah Blackman, Isaac Mather, Dr. 
James Levick, Joseph W. George, Tyson Embree, John S. Pearson, 
J. Willis Martin, Charles R. Miller, and, as to later events, Pearson 
and Anna Embree, William J. Jenks, Charles Stokes, and his grand- 
daughter, Anna Albertson. 



JAMES EMBREE. 9 

9, 1787; Hannah, b. 9th mo. 19, 1788, d. 1st mo. 15, 
1867; Jesse, b. 1st mo. 2, 1790, d. 8th mo. 9, 1823; 
Daniel, b. 7th mo. 25, 1791 ; Sibbilla, b. 4th mo. 1, 1793, 
d. 1793 ; Sibilla, b. 4th mo. 12, 1794, d. 4th mo. 30, 1873 ; 
Rebecca, b. 1st mo. 31, 1796, d. 9th mo. 27, 1877 ; Elisha, 
b. 4th mo. 25, 1797 ; Anna, b. 5th mo. 22, 1799, d. 6th 
mo. 4, 1862. 

James Embree purchased the place in West Bradford 
where Israel Lamborn now lives, about two miles westward 
of Marshallton, in 3d month, and moved to it 4th mo. 1, 
1791. He brought a certificate from Exeter to Bradford 
Monthly Meeting in the same spring, for himself, wife, and 
all his children to Jesse inclusive. 

James Embree farmed his place during the residue of 
his life, and also malted barley. He and his wife Rebecca 
both became elders of Bradford Monthly Meeting. They 
were faithful to their duties and careful to take their chil- 
dren to meetings, and to give them all the education that 
the schools and their means could afford, and the school- 
house on the road running south from the Strasburg road 
to the poor-house was the place of their schooling, and 
where several of them commenced to teach. Phebe, Sib- 
billa, Rebecca, and Anna had the advantage of a Westtown 
School education. James Embree, born 6th mo. 3, 1748, 
died 8th mo. 5, 1815; Phebe, his wife, born 8th mo. 8, 
1750, died 2d mo. 15, 1778; Rebecca, his wife, born 2d 
mo. 3, 1858, died 9th mo. 7, 1808. 



10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Now what more can I say of James Embree ? Not a 
scrap of his writing is found, except the Bible entries of 
the births and deaths of his children. I have a memory 
of him, and can say of him that he was a dignified, serious, 
and earnest man. He was intelligent in business and in 
mechanical inventions. He was well informed and faith- 
fully practical in the affairs of religious society. The 
weight of these and the responsibility of providing for fif- 
teen children was a constant pressure upon him. If all 
men had to bear the weight he bore, life would be too anx- 
ious for human happiness ; but in his religion and his fam- 
ily he had great consolation. 

Well, James Embree did this, the best thing a man can 
do, if he has the courage, health, and energy to do it : he 
chose wisely his wives ; he raised fourteen children to 
manhood and womanhood, all in good reputation, and all 
well fitted for usefulness in society. That is more credita- 
ble than even first-rate farming. Shall I not then speak 
briefly of these, and of how they struggled with life when 
cast upon their own resources ? It is more interesting to 
observe this strife than that of the children of the rich, 
who have all they need provided for them, which the pru- 
dent save and grow richer, and the improvident waste and 
grow worse and poor. The history of the Embree children 
has its lessons and deep pathos. 

The children of the first wife were constitutionally grave 
and correct. Samuel went to Ohio, was a farmer, and has 



JAMES EMBREE. 11 

left a worthy posterity. Merrick was a farmer, and kept a 
nursery at the south end of the Embree farm, on the Stras- 
burg road. His worthy descendants are in and about Mar- 
shallton. James was a farmer and store-keeper, and is rep- 
resented in West Chester by his son Pearson and family, 
where the mechanical tendency of his grandfather has well 
cropped out. Phebe died unmarried. 

The children of the second wife had another element, 
and it is interesting to study the law of heredity in the two 
sets. Something is indicated when it is said Rebecca's 
grandfather was an Irishman, and more when it is stated 
that he was of the vigorous race of the province of Ulster, 
in the north of Ireland, peopled centuries back by adven- 
turous Scotchmen. 

But I forbear to speak of these until I have spoken of 
their mother, Rebecca Kirk, whose father, William Kirk, 
was son of Alphonsus Kirk, who left Lurgan, Ireland, in 
1688, with the approval of his meeting and his parents, 
Roger and Elizabeth Kirk, and reached New Castle County, 
near the lower border of this State, old Chester County, 
and settled on the east side of the Brandy wine in 1689. 
He married Abigail, daughter of Adam Sharpley, 12th 
month, 1692-3. The subjoined letter of Rebecca is 
copied here for good reasons, for she was the faithful help- 
meet of James Embree during all her married life ; it shows 
her own mind, feelings, and characteristics, and inferentially 
those of Rachel, the beloved daughter addressed, who 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

during the next year was to replace her mother in the care 
of her many children, and to become the comforter of her 
father in his old age and great bereavement. It shows her 
familiarity with the Scriptures when these were more read 
than now, and there was a keener relish for their religious 
truths and poetical beauties : 

" West Bradford, 5th Mo. 18th, 1807. 

"Dear Child, — I don't know that I have. much to tell thee that 
will be likely to produce much satisfaction, or feel very interesting to 
thee, as it seems as if I had to pass of late through a winter season ; 
a season wherein the beauties of creation lay obscured, and the voice 
of the turtle is not heard, though nature is wearing her brightest gar- 
ment, the fields spreading forth their most beautiful foliage, and the 
gardens displaying their liveliest colors, the little birds uttering their 
sweet notes on almost every branch ; yet to me it is like a winter 
season. 

" I don't mention these things to cast a gloom over thy tender 
mind. I know thee has enough to bear, and I am sometimes afraid 
too much. I feel concerned lest thee should suffer thy situation to 
impress thy mind too seriously. I want thee to be as cheerful as is 
becoming, and what thee can't help try to think but little about it. I 
have been under the necessity to do so, and have been helped thus 
far to my admiration : and although it has been with me as above de- 
scribed, yet I am thankful that it is not worse than it is. . . . 

" We have had the company of dear Mary Wichell, of Frankford, 
and dear Ruth Richardson, of Philadelphia, at our Quarterly Meeting, 
and at Bradford Meeting, and at our house. I told R. Richardson I 
had a daughter in town and where thee lived. She said she would be 
glad to know thee, etc. . . . 

" I remain thy ever affectionate mother, 
" Rebecca Embree." 



JAMES EM B REE. 13 

This is the only letter I have found written by James 
Embree, or Rebecca his wife. It shows the tender mater- 
nal spirit of her mind in loving sympathy with her beloved 
daughter, as first entering upon the trials of life. It shows 
that the " seed" of life were yet living in the Society of 
Friends here in America, and here in Chester County, as 
George Fox had foreseen them in ascendency on his death- 
bed in 1690, when his last words were, " All is well, and 
the seed of God reigns over all, and over death itself; and 
though I am weak in body, the power of the Lord is over 
all, and over all disorderly spirits." In making the ex- 
tracts I feel as one who has exhumed a sacred seed that has 
laid under ground for three-fourths of a century, to take a 
new growth in the light and warmth of the sun, in " good 
ground." May it fructify in good fruits. 

The letter shows that she waited for the Lord to be gra- 
cious, as was the wont of faithful Friends in all times ; to 
watch observantly the guidance of God, with sincere solici- 
tude to follow the intimations given, and if for a season it 
pleased Him to withhold the evidence of his gracious 
presence, patiently to wait his reappearance, in the faith 
that He would never desert his faithful children. It is 
plain she was then under the preparing Hand for her im- 
mortal life. In the following year she died. 

Rachel then, or soon after, had her severe trial, and bore 
it as women often do, silently, though knowing the grief 
was hastening her to the grave. He who had proffered his 

2 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

love was worthy ; but her parents thought they saw that 
her happiness would not be secured by leaving their home. 
Her few remaining years were beautifully holy and instruc- 
tive. I speak of what I saw. She died 2d month 14, 1813. 
Rebecca Embree, wife of James, as all her sisters, had 
an education that fitted her well for all household duties, 
and for those of a wife and mother whose husband was not 
rich and whose children were many ; for they were four 
by a first wife and eleven by the second. For these she 
provided clothing ; kept them in condition to go respecta- 
bly to school, to meeting, and into society ; she trained 
them well in intellect, manners, and morals ; was their nurse 
and largely their physician ; she was a sympathizing visitor 
to the sick and poor ; and as an elder was a mother in the 
Church of the Society of Friends. In the administration 
of their discipline she was humane and merciful. She ever 
remembered that " Like as a father pitieth his children, so 
the Lord pitieth them that fear him ; for He knoweth our 
frame." She remembered that we are all his children, and 
that we are all liable to err. I have heard her daughter 
Hannah repeat that as a child she heard when sitting in 
the Women's Meeting of business. A member was under 
treatment for marrying " out of meeting," whom Rebecca, 
as one of a committee, had visited, and knew her tender 
condition of mind and her desire to remain in membership 
with Friends. Finding a disposition to disown the offender 
she said, u I would have Friends seriously to consider the 



JAMES E MB REE. 15 

step they are about to take. Here is a contrite woman, of 
tender spirit, asking to be kept in membership with us, 
and to share our sisterly sympathy and religious fellowship 
and cares. If we drive her from us she will go out with 
feelings hardened towards us ; she will be the more exposed 
to temptation because we have thus done, and because she 
will not have our loving care. On our action may depend 
her safety, and on us may rest the responsibility of the 
loss of an immortal soul I" The appeal was availing. 
Truly it requires more than human wisdom to know when 
the higher duty is, to clear the religious society of the re- 
proach of unworthy members, or to forbear to disown, to 
continue to labor, and to try to save. It may not be for- 
gotten that the door of Christ's mercy is never closed to 
those who will repent and live. No touch of selfishness 
may inhere in the performance of hallowed duties. 

I will speak of the ten children of James and Rebecca 
Embree who grew up, in the order of their deaths. Rachel 
was the first to go. Her brother Jesse, in a letter to his 
friend, Charles Stokes, of Rancocas, N. J., dated 3d month 
24, 1813, speaks of being at home before the death of his 
" worthy sister," and much " in her edifying society." He 
describes the scene as very affecting, to see the aged father 
take final leave of his beloved daughter, who had acted the 
part of a mother to the younger children, who was his im- 
plicit confidant, who had soothed him in sickness, and was 
his greatest comfort in declining years. He also speaks of 



16 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the impressive solemnity of the meeting held at her funeral, 
wherein Jesse Kersey drew very forcibly the contrasted feel- 
ings of the parent who loses a virtuous with those of 
one who buries a vicious child. I remember her in her 
years of decay as one sweetly devout in her religion, affec- 
tionate, kind ; whose spirit longed for a more perfect exist- 
ence ; whose countenance already bore a heavenly sweet- 
ness and angelic beauty. 

Jesse Embree was the next of these children to pass out 
of this life- Before 1812 he had been keeping school at 
Moorestown, N. J., and there formed an intimate acquaint- 
ance with Charles Stokes, of Rancocas, now in his nine- 
tieth year, who has kindly furnished me with copies of 
eleven of his letters, written from 1st month, 1812, to 8th 
month, 1816; the dates from Baltimore being from 12th 
month 3, 1812, to 5th month 21, 1813, where he taught 
school, and from 2d month, 1814, they came from Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. In his last letter from Baltimore he said his 
father had given his consent to his going Westward, appre- 
hending that his health would no longer stand the confine- 
ment of teaching. Jesse exclaimed, " He is a dear, good 
old man, and is very tender of his son." 

I have read all Jesse's side of the correspondence, writ- 
ten in the freedom of the most intimate and confiding 
friendship. It details the trials of a teacher, also the 
trials of one constitutionally nervous ; of one refined by 
nature and culture when brought into contact with the 



JAMES EMBREE. 17 

rough customers of a brewery and of a Western steam- 
boat captain. But every line of his letters shows him to 
have been true to his parental and social training, in morals 
and religion, and his own refining culture, and not a trace 
of the modern scepticism is to be seen. 

His brother Davis and himself were brewers in Cincin- 
nati, and were occupied in the effort to extend their busi- 
ness by sending their ale down the rivers at the date of 
the last letter from Cincinnati. I remember to have met 
Davis when their business included the buying and selling 
of real estate, in which they thought they were prospering. 
But they as well as others were, while floating on a paper 
currency at high flood-tide, unconscious how high the nom- 
inal values were above the real prices when to be paid in 
specie, when sheriffs' sales should close their transactions. 
From this height paper inflation prices were declining 
after 1816 until Aug. 17, 1822, and hence the lines in 
the letter of Jesse of that date, written at St. Louis, to the 
widow of his deceased friend : " Nominally possessed of an 
estate at home, I labored under the most mortifying and 
persecuting financial embarrassment." The letter was to 
Eliza W. Hinchman, of Philadelphia. He endeavored to 
afford consolation to her, when he sadly needed it himself. 

"St. Louis, August 17, 1822. 
" Dear Eliza, — A long train of painful and adverse events has 
sent me a melancholy and almost hopeless wanderer through the 
limitless and perilous regions of the Mississippi: my mind a wreck 

2* 



18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of misfortune ; iny heart the victim of separation, and my person the 
subject of disease. Nominally possessed of an estate at home, (I) 
labored under the most mortifying and persecuting financial embar- 
rassments ; and possessed of all that is amiable, affectionate, and 
toothing and kind in the conjugal state, I am doomed to consume nine- 
tenths of my time at an almost unmeasureable distance from my fam- 
ily, and generally without the reach of their correspondence. But 
callous and apathetic as the unmeasureable weight of woe is calcu- 
lated to render my feelings, and much as these feelings, while their 
sensibility remains, might be exercised selfishly upon my own calam_ 
ities, j^et I found this morning, and I rejoiced in the discovery, that 
my nature can be moved, and my indurate feelings of sympathy 
awakened by the afflictions of my friends. Some indisposition, ex- 
treme debility, and an unusual depression of spirits have made me 
for the last week the guest of a young relative and friend of this vil- 
lage, who was raised in your city, and from some unknown cause I 
was daily impressing upon him the peculiar nature and the almost 
unexampled strength of my attachment to thy late amiable and 
worthy consort. I told him that we loved each other in our youth, 
and that our affection was strongly corroborated by his memorable 
visit to my little family in Cincinnati. My Mary ranked him highest 
in the list of my Eastern friends, and always spoke of him in the most 
affectionate terms. Judge then of my emotions when transiently pe- 
rusing the newspaper I met the annunciation of his death. 

"His innocent, useful, and charitable life, and his smooth and 
happy passage to a world of spirits and 'the world of bliss/ first 
filled my imagination ; but a melancholy train of memories, a be- 
reaved and disconsolate widow, a helpless family of orphans, and a 
weeping circle of friends succeeded, awakened all the tender emotions 
of my earlier years, and moistened those eyes, (to) which the sullen- 
ness of grief has recently refused that consoling tribute. May thy 
fortitude, oh my afflicted and mourning friend, be strengthened by 



JAMES E MB REE. 19 

the Guardian who watched over your conjugal felicity, and who will 
keep a charitable register of thy widowed woes. And may I never 
more murmur at my afflicted destiny while the cords of my connubial 
love are unbroken, and the wife of my choice, the consort of my life, 
remains. But let us under the mantle of grief, no less than in the 
sunshine of joy, render Him the tribute of gratitude in the room of 
disaffection, and praise in the room of complaint. 

"Thy sincere and sympathetic friend, 

"Jesse Embree." 

This is the last letter from Jesse Embree that I have 
seen. He was commanding the steamboat the brothers 
owned, and which he was commanding at the time of his 
death, and which Davis commanded in 10th month, 1823, 
when he obtained the information of his last hours from 
M. C. Comstock, of whom Davis wrote, " We all owe him 
the greatest debt of gratitude for leaving his business and 
going on shore in the wilderness country to wait upon him, 
which he did, never leaving his bedside till his death." 
This is Mr. Comstock's statement : 

"Arkansas Territory, Phillips County, Walnut Bend. 
"Arrived here on the 6th of August, 1823, at 10 o'clock p.m., in 
the Steam Boat ' Cincinnati/ went on shore with Captain Embree, who 
was dangerously ill with a remittent fever, and took lodgings at the 
house of William Dunn, Esquire, where I waited on Captain Embree 
during his sickness, which terminated on the 9th instant, at 4 p.m., 
and on the following day at 12 meridian (Sabbath) buried him in a 
Christian like manner. Of Captain Jesse Embree it might truly be 
said, he did hide the faults he saw in others, and always felt another's 
woe. M. C. C." 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

This is a terse and telling eulogy, which no tombstone 
recorded ; but, better, it will go on a page in the " History of 
Chester County," whose people he ever loved, the imagery 
of whose beautiful scenery faded not from his mind while 
he lived. His poetic sensibilities there had their birth, but 
the fruits of his poetic culture have disappeared. 

Daniel took the parental homestead and malt-house and 
carried on his father's business ; but working on the ebb- 
ing tide of the inflated currency towards a specie basis, 
while debts must be paid at their face amount, he came to 
insolvency. He removed to Washington, D. C, and after 
a time to Dayton, Ohio, where he left children and grand- 
children. 

Blisha took the degree of Doctor of Medicine, went West 
and Southwest, married and had a son ; was in the drug 
business, and failing to have success, entered the quiet 
community of Shaking Quakers, in Indiana, where he and 
his son carried their intelligence and received the requital 
of a livelihood. There we see in our country the extreme 
of celibacy, that, if general, would bring the race to an 
end ; while in Utah we have the other extreme, where the 
sanctity of the Christian family of one wife and one mother 
is lost, and the race suffers deterioration. 

Anna married Eli K. Price. She died 6th mo. 4, 
1862, leaving to survive a son, John Sergeant Price, and a 
daughter, Sibyl, married to Rev. Starr H. Nichols, and 
four grandchildren. Her husband has paid his tribute of 



JAMES EMBREE. 21 

affection to her memory in the memoir of their beloved 
daughter Rebecca, privately printed in 1862. 

William died 1st mo. 23, 1865. He, as had his brothers, 
had a hard struggle with life. He was a brewer, maltster, 
and store-keeper. He founded Embreeville ; took an active 
part in the meetings of Friends ; was clerk in them ; as a 
young man was their agent among the Indians under their 
care. He was treasurer of Chester County ; came to live 
at West Chester, and there died, leaving a son, Norris, 
and daughter, Rebecca, and grand and great-grandchildren. 
The daughter married James House, who came to live at 
West Chester, and there died, after having been miller and 
farmer on the Pocopson, and a useful member in civil and 
religious society ; a man of intelligence, right feelings, and 
excellent judgment. William Embree's greatest loss came 
by the failure of his principal customer for malted barley. 

Hannah Embree was a teacher of children in country 
schools, and during many of her later years in West Chester. 
She had a love for the occupation, and the children loved 
their teacher. Many worthy citizens, of various ages, re- 
member with affection her cheerful and useful teachings 
and good life. 

Davis Embree was a brewer in Cincinnati at the begin- 
ning of 1814, when his brother Jesse joined him. Their 
affairs were connected from that time to the death of the 
latter, with what result and from what cause we have seen. 
In the latter period of their partnership they owned for 



22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

several years a steamboat, which at first Jesse commanded, 
but afterwards Davis was her commander, and thereby 
became familiar with steam navigation on the Mississippi 
and Ohio Rivers. Explosions of boilers, running into 
sawyers or snags and upon shifting shoals, and racing of 
boats were so common as to make the navigation of those 
rivers the most dangerous that could be made. The public 
were treated to pictures of those explosions in a way that 
was horribly amusing. The vessel and its varied cargo 
were blown up, the fragments flying in all directions, with 
human bodies in all states of mutilation and disjointed 
parts rising and falling in the air, with a few left entire to 
complete the joke by implying such familiarity with the 
practice as to coolly salute each other in the air. Davis 
well understood the causes of these perils and the best 
remedies to be applied. By one of these the " Cincinnati" 
was wrecked, some time before May, 1825, when I was in 
Cincinnati. 

Davis Embree was the most efficient advocate for an act 
of Congress to repress the dangers of all steam navigation. 
To this he devoted several years of his time and the ener- 
gies of an intelligent and vigorous mind. The act of Con- 
gress of 30th August, 1852, was the result, and is the 
basis of the system of inspection and supervision of steam- 
boats and their boilers, with supply of life-preservers, in 
force to the present time. It was due to him and his 
fitness and skill that he should receive the appointment of 



JAMES EMBREE. 23 

inspector for the Mississippi River district, and he con- 
tinued to hold office under the act with general approval 
for some years ; but his independent Ulster blood was too 
much for his safety. He would not for office concede his 
freedom of speech, and a successor of other party politics 
was appointed to his place under the administration of Mr. 
Buchanan. 

Though there are many disasters yet occurring, by reason 
of the neglect of duty by officials, owners, and captains, the 
savings under the act, if they could be counted, would be 
of lives numbered in thousands, and of property numbered 
in millions, in the past and through all future times. 
Seldom, indeed, has one man exercised so much power for 
good as this son of Chester County. 

Sibbilla was the veteran teacher of the family. From the 
small home school-house she went to the palatial one of 
Westtown to teach in 1813, and, as every good teacher 
is, was there further self-taught, as well as taught by others. 
There she remained some years. Her sister Anna, after 
some years spent in teaching in Wilmington, joined Sibbilla 
in teaching in Philadelphia. In the three places they 
moved under the benign auspices and protective care of 
Friends, as Jesse did in New Jersey and in Baltimore. 
This is an advantage that is of inestimable value to those 
who leave the parental roof to procure a livelihood. At 
the same time it afforded to these young women a most 
intelligent and agreeable social circle. Here they wero 



24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

employed together for several years. When Philip Price 
established his boarding-school for girls, soon after 1830, 
Sibbilla went to her uncle as a teacher, and remained with 
him until his death in 1837, and afterwards with his 
daughter, Hannah P. Davis, until she sold the school 
building in 1852. She extended her studies into the 
French language, drawing, and natural history. 

Rebecca went, in 1816, to live with Sally Norris Dick- 
inson, daughter of Governor John Dickinson, author of 
the " Farmer's Letters" before, and president of the Su- 
preme Executive Council after, the Revolution, and lived in 
close friendship with her until her death, a period of 
more than forty years. There she read with her history, 
travels, biography, and general literature. The opportuni- 
ties for improvement there afforded her were most ample 
and made available. In that attractive and plain but 
elegant home she met socially many members of the 
Society of Friends and others, women and men of superior 
culture and intelligence, and of high moral and religious 
excellence. This society was very refining to Rebecca, and 
her previous training and her kindred qualities made her 
fully susceptible to the influences that surrounded her. 
No better example of the dignity and refinement of a per- 
fect lady could be seen than was Sally Norris Dickinson. 

It may here be truly said of all the daughters of James 
Embree that they were cultivated and refined ladies ; of 
all his sons that they were gentlemen in the sense of the 



JAMES EMBREE. 25 

better qualities of a true gentleman, though generally they 
were as plain in dress and address as required by the 
strictest observance of the rules of Friends' discipline. 

There is something to be observed of the children of 
James and Rebecca Embree that was distinctive. They 
were of nervous constitution, and sanguine temperament 
as well, with little of the ballast of the phlegmatic. While 
the sanguine made them hopeful and enterprising, the 
nervous left them depressed when exhausted or disappointed. 
They had a quick perception of the humorous, witty, and 
ridiculous that readily caused cheerfulness and laughter 
and made them brightly social ; but this vivacity again was 
met by the seriousness of a profound religious feeling, so 
that the alternations were plainly visible and often of quick 
recurrence. The blood of the persecuted French Hugue- 
not and of the Ulster Irish ancestor were both manifest. 

Am I here asked why I thus commemorate persons 
who had so little success in life, for never one of them 
grew rich? There are some things in life better to be done 
than the getting of riches, which has frequently a harden- 
ing tendency. The life of every daughter, so long as she 
lived, she lived independently and happily, and died leaving 
more loving and beloved friends than is commonly the lot 
of women. The failures of sons to grow rich was from 
overruling causes, but without reproach, and* their lives 
convey lessons valuable as cautions to others ; and some of 
them were wise enough not to covet or strive for wealth. 

3 



26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

They all, sons and daughters, of both mothers, had an af- 
fection for each other more than is common ; that never 
failed, and made them helpful of each other according to 
ability. Rebecca, by the liberality of her devoutly-beloved 
and ever-lamented friend, Sally Norris Dickinson, was en- 
abled during life and at death to be helpful to her nearest 
relatives, whose tender and affectionate care and attentions 
she perfectly enjoyed. The conclusion is that James Em- 
bree and Phebe and Rebecca, his wives, while they lived, 
and through their children after them, were benefactors of 
society, and the world will long be the better because they 
had lived. 

Have I seemed to occupy more than a due share of space 
in this local history with the sketches of the lives of Philip 
and Rachel Price, and of James and Rebecca Embree ? In 
writing them I have had this feeling : that my memory reaches 
further into the past than any who will write for this Chester 
County volume. I look back to a period when Friends 
there constituted a larger proportion of the community 
than now, and exercised a greater relative influence than 
now for the general good. Other religious persuasions now 
more abound, and with increase of religious earnestness. 
We yet look upon many Friends there true in faith and 
practice, and such as I knew them in my youth ; yet I 
have not been able to divest my mind of the feeling that 
" the society" is slowly waning, and the thought fills me 
with sorrow that in time it will verge to extinction there, 



JAMES EMBREE. 27 

where their good work and example have been conspicuously 
beneficent. In this possible event it has seemed good that 
our local history should carry into future time the true 
conception of what we have seen and known to be true. 
It is a precious part of the good history of our humanity, so 
sparse in this world. And in contemplating a possible 
future so sad I have this assured satisfaction : that besides 
the works of humanity they have done, — works great in- 
deed compared with their relatively small numbers, — they 
have leavened the world with a leaven that will leaven it 
through indefinite time ; have made its Christianity more 
spiritual and real ; the inspirations of the Holy Spirit more 
assured among men; made mankind more humane; borne 
testimonies of righteousness that the world can never for- 
get ; given to it conceptions of divine truth that must at 
once stand the test of the most enlightened understanding 
and the divinest teachings of the Gospel. 

The history of the Friends for over two hundred years, 
while it awfully reflects upon a persecuting and wicked 
world, is that which the good of mankind will in all the 
future look back upon with the highest approbation. They 
bore their persecutions heroically, they endured and died 
in the spirit of martyrs, but they never retaliated by in- 
jury for injury; yet they owed it to humanity and to God 
to bear their testimony against all wrong, and to cry aloud 
against all oppression and iniquity, and this they did as 
fearlessly as they suffered bravely. Though seeming so 



28 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

serious a people, so unromantic to the young and worldly, 
their history is truly the brightest and most beautiful, in 
contrast with which the records of chivalry and the Cru- 
sades fade into folly and wickedness. It is but the light 
of the good and the true that will be seen across the dark- 
ness of the centuries. 



PHILIP PRICE. 



In the " History of Chester County" I have been in- 
vited to fill a space with a sketch of the life of my father. 
I appreciate the privilege, and will not abuse it. It is my 
native county, and it and its people have always had the 
strongest hold upon my affections, and wherever I have 
lived or traveled there my untraveled heart has ever turned 
as to a home and scenes the most beautiful of earth. 

Philip Price was born on the 8th of the first month 
(January), 1764, in Kingsessing, Philadelphia, on the 
brow of the first upland overlooking the meadows and the 
lower Schuylkill and the Delaware Rivers, within five miles 
of the southwest corner of William Penn's city of two 
square miles, and in the beautiful but little varied scenery 
of that home of the Bonsalls his youth was spent. 

It has been a labor of love to trace the ancestry of my 
parents in all their branches back to the first settlers, all of 
whom came direct to Pennsylvania and the " three Lower 

* By Eli K. Price. 

3* 29 



30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Counties," and seated themselves under the benign auspices 
of William Penn and a civil and religious government of 
the Society of Friends. No colony was ever planted under 
influences so beneficent, none ever had to endure evils so 
few, none so fully enjoyed the just fruits of wise principles, 
and a good moral and religious life. The true history of 
that colony is the brightest oasis in the dreary records of 
wrongs and misgovernment which all other histories pre- 
sent to our view. We can never cease to love to contem- 
plate it, and reproduce it for the loving admiration of all 
who love the good, the true, and the righteous. From the 
wise institutions of Penn all our declarations of rights and 
constitutions have borrowed some of their best principles. 

All the immigrant ancestors of our parents came with 
William Penn in 1682, or within a few years afterwards. 
There was but one male in each of the four generations of 
the name of Price who preceded my father, thus named : 
Philip, Isaac, Isaac, and Philip. The first Isaac Price 
married Susannah Shoemaker, who came to Pennsylvania 
with Sarah, her mother, and her uncles Jacob and Peter 
Shoemaker, 8th mo. 12, 1685, some of whose descendants 
were Millers, of Shoemaker Town, near Abington. These 
were German Friends from the Palatinate of the Rhine. 
The second Isaac married Margaret, daughter of the second 
Henry Lewis, whose father was the loved and trusted friend 
of William Penn. 

Philip Price's father was a farmer and grazier, and his 



PHILIP PRICE. 31 

son assisted and was trained in his business. During the 
war of the Revolution the farm was twice swept of its 
cattle, alternately, for the British and American army, and 
for a short time Gen. Howe had his headquarters at the 
father's house, by the Kingsessing church. 

Philip Price remained, after his marriage on the 20th of 
the tenth month, 1784, about three years with his father, 
and afterwards occupied a farm in East Nantmeal, Chester 
Co., for four years. In 1791, by deed 23d of third month, 
he bought the farm within two miles southwest of West 
Chester, the birthplace of all his children except the first 
four. Here it was that he began his improvements of 
grounds, then exhausted, gully- washed, and overgrown with 
poverty-grass and weeds. Those 317 acres 104 perches 
are now in the ownership of the widow and children of 
Philip P. Paxson, the widow and children of William P. 
Foulke, Esq., of Dr. Alfred Elwyn, of Richard Strode, and 
parts of it are in the farms of Alfred Sharpies and John 
Yerkes. 

Writing to Judge Peters in 1796, Philip Price said, 
" In the spring of the year 1792 I fenced off a piece of 
about four acres" (to fold his cattle), " being a part of a 
large field that was much reduced, washed into deep gullies 
in many parts, and which had been totally neglected for 
many years. The appearance was so disagreeable that I 
put no value on it when I purchased the place, though the 
field contained fifty acres." The best efforts made in agri- 



32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

cultural improvement at that time in the neighborhood 
were those of meadow-bank irrigation. Philip Price was 
in communication with the best theoretical and practical 
information of the period, and made his own observation 
and experiment with skill and judgment. Judge Peters 
and Dr. Mease were then our best writers and most zealous 
patrons of agriculture. Philip Price saved and spread his 
stable-manure, used lime, and was among the first in Chester 
County to begin the use of plaster of Paris. Judge Peters 
writes, " I have heard of none who have been more re- 
markably successful in the plaster system than Mr. West 
and Mr. Price. They have brought old, worn-out lands to 
an astonishing degree of fertility and profit by combining 
the plaster with other manures." — (Mem. of Agl. Soc, 2 
vols., 34.) 

The rotation of crops adopted was to plow in the fall or 
early spring, for the spring planting of Indian corn ; the 
next year to sow barley or oats, and in the fall to sow the 
wheat crop ; and upon this to sow the clover- and timothy- 
seed, and the product of these in the following year was a 
fine crop of hay, with a fall crop of clover, and this for some 
years, until it became expedient to repeat the same rotation. 

In 1796, Philip Price answered the queries of Judge 
Peters to the following effect as to the use of gypsum. On 
a high, loamy soil it operated better than on low-lying clay 
ground. One to one and a half bushels per acre are suffi- 
cient, repeated yearly while in clover ; the effect being good 



PHILIP PRICE. 33 

with or without recent plowing, and is without liability 
to leave the soil exhausted, where the increased product is 
returned in increase of the stable-manure. It is most bene- 
ficially applied to Indian corn and red clover, but usefully 
on other grain- and grass-crops, with or without other ma- 
nuring, but with most striking effect if not immediately 
preceded by other manure. The best time to sow it is at 
the first harrowing of Indian corn, and on clover, in small 
quantity, soon after it comes up, to be repeated as soon as 
vegetation takes place in the spring. The effect is most 
visible on a poor soil. Eight acres sowed plentifully with 
it, without other manure, in five years, said Philip Price, 
" became worth ten times what it was before I plastered it, 
the face of the soil appearing to be entirely changed, and 
is admired by all who have hitherto known it." 

In 1799 the first trials were made in London of Dr. 
Jenner's new discovery of vaccination to prevent the loath- 
some scourge of smallpox. Within a few years Philip 
Price brought the vaccine scab, and with his own hand, as 
I remember, vaccinated successfully all his children ; and 
all escaped the disease from which immunity was sought. 
Yet, strange perversity ! there are now those who oppose 
that invaluable preventive. 

Philip Price was deputed by his neighbors, about the 
end of the first decade of this century, to go into Virginia 
and bring into Chester County the seeds of the Virginia 
thorn for hedging. The writer was present at the division 



34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of the seeds, and helped to plant the first hedges. These 
became of extended use, and added an ornament to the 
landscape. This thorn is now falling into disuse, and it is 
largely replaced by the osage orange, of larger and more 
vigorous growth and a more permanent verdure. 

When the Chester County Agricultural Society was 
formed, many years after, the remembrance of what Philip 
Price had done for their cause was held reason sufficing for 
his being elected its first president. 

Farming was then more picturesque than now. Then 
farmers would in turn join their forces, and it was a sight 
pleasing to behold when ten to twenty men reaped beside 
each other, he to the left being successively a few feet in 
advance ; and more so when they swung so many cradles 
in concert, as by one impulse. The sickle was the primi- 
tive instrument for cutting wheat ; but early in the cen- 
tury the cradle, with scythe and four fingers, came into 
general use ; but still the sickle or naked scythe was needed 
where the wheat, barley, or oats was lodged. In 1809, on 
my twelfth birthday, I reaped my dozen sheaves. 

At the beginning of the century most of the traveling 
was done on horseback, and but few kept their carriages. 
Philip Price was equipped to face the storm on horseback. 
It was unknown to his family that he ever failed in any 
appointment on account of weather. He wore high boots 
and a light-colored glazed silk water-proof, with a hood and 
skirts that covered him from the crown of his head to the 



PHILIP PRICE. 35 

soles of his feet, and so spread as to protect the saddle and 
the body of the horse. Though a less manly exercise, car- 
riages were a good institution and a step taken in civiliza- 
tion, for then more women and children could be taken to 
meetings and in making social visits. 

At that period Philip Price, as was the custom, was a 
liberal smoker of cigars, the worst thing I ever knew him 
to do ; but others inveighed against the habit, and William 
Townsend with peculiar emphasis. Philip Price resolved 
to quit the practice, and he did it at once. 

Philip Price never served spirituous liqours to his hands 
in harvest, or at other times, though many of his neighbors 
did. Friends were always a temperance society, but did not 
formerly absolutely abstain from wine, and more habitually 
drank malt liquor ; but I do not remember its use in our 
family ; indeed, but a little currant wine and some cider 
occasionally. Modern Friends have made an advance in 
this respect. 

Here I am brought to a pause. I am asked to give a 
sketch of the life of Philip Price. That life I never knew 
in separation from his wife. It cannot be told in separa- 
tion from his wife without being defective ; a failure in de- 
lineation, when it should not be so, for in reality there was 
none in his life. All the descendants of Philip and Rachel 
Price, all their friends, visitors, and neighbors, have ever 
known and spoken of their names unitedly, and as insepa- 
rably connected. Two trees that have so long stood to- 



36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

gether that their branches and leaves have blended into one 
harmonious canopy must be viewed as one picture. Sepa- 
rate them, and either is imperfect ; the symmetry is gone ; 
a chasm appears. And what would the men of Chester 
County have achieved without the wife and mother of the 
household, the mistress of the dairy, the provider for the 
harvesters ? Yet more, what is a Friend, in the Friends' 
Church, without his or her sympathizing and sustaining 
companion? Almost a withered branch. The Friends 
are yet, or ought to be, a peculiar people ; a missionary so- 
ciety to raise mankind to higher conceptions of the good 
and a more perfect example of Christianity. I must speak 
of my mother, or I feel that I both wrong her memory and 
that of my father. The primitive command was, " Honor 
thy father and thy mother." The child equally inherits 
the qualities of her blood, and, even more, the influences of 
her mind are impressed upon the minds of her children. 
Our civilization and refinement depend more upon woman 
than man. Let us, then, hold her at least in equal honor. 
This Friends have done beyond all other religious persua- 
sions. She repeats the same marriage ceremony as her 
husband; is his social companion, his most trusted friend, 
and safest counselor ; and the spirit of the gospel is alike 
given unto her, and more readily accepted by her. 

Alphonsus Kirk came, a young man, from Lurgan, prov- 
ince of Ulster, in Ireland, with certificate from his meet- 
ing and his parents, Roger Kirk and Elizabeth Kirk, dated 



PHILIP PRICE. 37 

9th of 10th month, 1688 ; settled on the east side of the 
Brandy wine, New Castle Co., and on the 22d of 12th 
month, 1692-3, married Abigail Sharpley, daughter of 
Adam Sharpley, who had arrived in 1682. Their tenth 
child was William Kirk, who removed to East Nantmeal, 
Chester Co., whose second wife was Sibilla Davis, of Welsh 
ancestry, a granddaughter of David Harris, who arrived 
the 17th of 10th month, 1684. Rachel Kirk was the 
sixth child of William and Sibilla Kirk, and became the 
wife of Philip Price. 

Since my earliest memory, which reaches to A.D. 1800, 
my parents were constant attendants of meetings for disci- 
pline and worship ; my father acted much as clerk, was an 
elder, and my mother a recommended minister of the gos- 
pel back into the last century. They took me with them to 
Birmingham Meeting; and as probably my memory ex- 
tends farther back than that of nearly all others, I think it 
would now interest many descendants to record the names 
of those who sat facing that meeting when its bounds in- 
cluded West Chester and vicinity, before the end of the 
first decade of this century. If an artist, I could portray 
their venerable faces and forms. Joshua Sharpless would 
have been there, but was absent as superintendent of West- 
town school. At the head of the higher bench sat Richard 
Strode, then came John Forsythe, Philip Price, Cheyney 
Jefferis, William Sharpless, Abraham Sharpless. On the 
second bench were James Painter, Abraham Darlington, 

4 



38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

William Townsend, Caleb Brinton, Thomas Wistar ; the 
latter, an invalid, was carried in and out by Cheyney Jefferis, 
who was stalwart. My mother was the only member I re- 
member as a minister at that time. 

I may not pass by the name of John Forsythe, my 
mother's teacher, without saying that he was more learned 
than any of his farming neighbors whom I knew. He was 
familiar with the writings of Dugald Stewart, and his mental 
philosophy was quite reconcilable with his religious faith. I 
heard him say in my youth that the evidence of the presence 
of the Divine Spirit was to him as plain as if the Creator 
had given him the proof by a sixth outward sense. He had 
this sense distinctly within. Friends held this from the first. 
Thomas Ellis brought here in his certificate from Friends 
in Wales, in 1683, a testimony, now among Merion Meet- 
ing records, wherein it is said, he being " a man of a 
tender spirit, and often broken before the Lord ; the sense 
of the power of an endless life being upon him." And 
Henry Thomas Buckle, an English philosopher, after writ- 
ing volumes on European civilization in a spirit but too 
skeptical, was constrained at last to say, " It is, then, to that 
sense of immortality with which the affections inspire us 
that I would appeal for the best proof of reality of a fu- 
ture." He had deeply sympathized with a beloved mother 
during her slow decay, and was only consoled for her loss by 
the undoubting belief that he would rejoin her. This event 
was not long delayed. He died at Damascus, May 31, 1867. 



PHILIP PRICE. 39 

In the end his philosophy became the religion of the Friends ; 
and by the same induction the religion of the Friends is the 
true philosophy. Thus the religious belief is real, and more 
than theological theory. In 1803 another wrote, — 

" Like as a language and the sound of words 
To thought is but a mean, a symbol, help, 
So is the soul's emotion thought itself."* 

The same was said by Paul : " That they should seek 
the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find 
him ;" was said by Jesus, when he said, " that neither in 
this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, was the true place to 
worship ;" said, " God is a spirit, and they that worship 
him must worship him in spirit and in truth," — that is, in 
the conscious soul, where "the Father seeketh such to wor- 
ship him." Paul, again, said, "the letter killeth, but the 
spirit giveth life." The emotion and spirit being that 
which comes from God, which men's words less perfectly 
express to others less inspired. From the inspired feeling 
arise thoughts and convictions, and with these come the 
fitting words, such as man has invented and uses. 

Of the worthy array of Friends named none have been 
living for many years, nor is a son or daughter of any of 
them now living except three, but of grandchildren and 
remoter descendants there are many living in Chester 
County and elsewhere who will be glad to hear of them 
all. Of these descendants of my parents I have to say 

* Von Chamisso's " Faust," translated by Henry Phillips, Jr. 



40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

they extend across this continent from California and 
Oregon to Boston ; and in Europe from Paris to Constan- 
tinople, — in all more than twelve localities. In numbers, 
those living in 1864 were 129, and since then the births 
have exceeded considerably the deaths. 

Philip and Rachel Price brought a certificate from 
Uwchlan Monthly Meeting, dated 4th month 21, 1791, 
which was presented at Concord 5th month 4. He was 
appointed clerk of the latter Monthly Meeting 3d month 
5, 1794; and an elder 5th month 3, 1797. Rachel Price 
was recommended as a minister 4th month 7, 1802. 

The deep concern Philip and Rachel Price felt in the 
Society of Friends and in the spread of gospel truth, and 
their perfect accord of views, made their union of senti- 
ment and service very close, but caused their frequent sep- 
aration for months at a time, in a mutual sacrifice for the 
good of the church. With a numerous family of children 
at home, for in 1802 they had ten living, all of whom lived 
to settle in life, it was a necessity that one should remain at 
home when the other was absent. These absences and sac- 
rifices tested their fidelity to Him to whom they owed their 
highest duty and whom they most faithfully served, added 
to their devotion a more perfect earnestness and refinement 
of religious culture, and caused them to write to each other 
many affectionate and instructive letters, that otherwise 
would never have been written. 

Philip Price traveled in the winter of 1796-97, with 



PHILIP PRICE. 41 

Charity Cook and Susanna Hollingsworth, through Vir- 
ginia and Western Pennsylvania, when " Redstone" had 
seemed the terminus of Friends' westward settlements. The 
roads were very bad and the weather very severe, the ink 
freezing in his pen as he wrote. Charity regarded him as 
a son in the spiritual life, and they performed the trying 
journey and severe service with much fortitude and patient 
endurance, with the reward of satisfaction. 

During 1800 and 1801, John Hall, a minister from 
England, was a frequent inmate in the family of Philip 
and Rachel Price, and by his cheerful and social manners 
was a welcome guest to all. He was in good fellowship 
with us little fellows, and after his return from Caspar Wis- 
tar's, where he stayed while we went through the measles, 
he saluted me, " Well, Eli, canst thou whistle yet?" for at 
four he indulged in that proof of an empty mind, and his 
parents were not oversevere. Philip traveled with John 
through New Jersey and Delaware, and in Pennsylvania 
as far northwestward as Muncy and Catawissa. John's 
letters, after his return home, were most cordial and affec- 
tionate, and strong in the utterances of gospel fellowship 
and prayers for the final future. 

In the 7th month, 1801, Rachel Price joined Sarah New- 
lin, of Darby, in religious visits to the families of Friends 
in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The sep- 
aration from her family was trying, and when ready to 
despond the words " Thy Maker shall be thy husband" 

4* 



42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

came to her relief, and she was encouraged to complete her 
assigned work in resignation. The service was felt to be 
owned by the Master, and she returned with the consola- 
tions of peace. 

In the spring of 1804, Sarah Talbot, of Chichester, of 
clear and thrilling voice, and Rachel Price made a religious 
visit to Friends in Middle and East New Jersey, and in the 
spring of 1805 visited those of South and West New Jersey. 
They held meetings almost daily, and met valued Friends. 
At Egg Harbor Rachel Price for the first time looked upon 
the ocean. Its unlimited expanse and the power of its waves 
as they ceaselessly rolled upon the shore moved her sensitive 
mind to wonder and praise of the Great Creator. In her 
religious services she had the compensation of the divine 
favor ; but the separation was mutually felt to be a great 
trial, yet husband and wife always encouraged each the 
other to patient perseverance to finish the allotted service 
in which he or she was engaged. 

In 1807, Mary Witchell, an English Friend, sensible and 
strong, and Rachel Price traveled to Ohio, crossing the 
mountains over the roughest roads, and returned through 
Virginia and Maryland. So rough were then the moun- 
tain roads that the women Friends were often obliged to 
walk and to ride in turn the one saddle-horse, sitting inse- 
curely sideways on a man's saddle. Rachel wrote, " I think 
it is not possible for any one to conceive how bad the roads 
are without seeing them." They made two miles an hour. 



PHILIP PRICE. 43 

Ohio had then numerous primitive dwellings and some 
meeting-houses; and where these were not, court-houses and 
churches were freely opened. The mountains deeply im- 
pressed my mother's mind by their grandeur, and their tes- 
timony to the Creative power. She loved to commune with 
Friends in their simple homes, and sympathized in their 
trials, temporal and spiritual. She wrote from New Garden : 
" There is a valuable settlement of Friends here in this 
wilderness country, whom we feel nearly united to, and I 
may tell thee that I fully believe that I am in my place in 
coming here. Though trying to be separated from you at 
home, yet I feel very comfortable in being with our friends 
here in little cabins.' 1 In 1821 the writer visited Mary at 
Leeds, England, found her hale and kind, and since 1850 
received from her a silk purse knit after she was one hun- 
dred years old. 

In 1809 Rachel Price and Sarah Talbot traveled exten- 
sively through Virginia and Maryland. But regard for al- 
lotted space compels me to forbear giving details. In 1810 
she visited the meetings of the Western Quarter ; in 1812, 
those of Abington ; and in 1813, Philip Price went to the 
opening of the first Yearly Meeting in Ohio. On that occa- 
sion Jesse Kersey's services were eminently influential. At 
that period his eloquence had such persuasive and argumen- 
tative power as never to be forgotten by his hearers, as 
never have they been by the writer, whose memory reaches 
back to the most favored years of his gospel ministry. 



44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

During the war of 1812 to 1815 our people were forced 
into manufactures by the war with Great Britain, and these 
demanded wool, and the farm was used to graze merino 
sheep, with good results while the war lasted, but when it 
ceased protection of manufactures ceased, the manufactories 
fell into decay, and the price of wool and value of sheep fell, 
and these went to the shambles. Then and before, during 
Jefferson's embargoes, the Democrats were the most zealous 
champions of American manufactures. The parties re- 
versed their policy after the first quarter of the century, 
and our factories went to decay when they should have 
been saved. 

From 1795, Philip Price, and from 1802, Kachel Price, 
had been one of the Yearly Meeting's committee to build 
and manage the Westtown Boarding-School. There all 
of their ten children received their last year's education. 
In 1818, Philip and Rachel Price were appointed to take 
charge of the school as superintendents, and continued 
under the appointment until 1830. After that time he 
built the Girls' Boarding-School, at West Chester, which 
his daughter, Hannah P. Davis, sold in 1852. Their gov- 
ernment in both was essentially a rule by kindness and 
affection, and thousands have remembered and remember 
them and their daughter, in all the residue of their lives, 
with the love of affectionate children towards beloved pa- 
rents. 

During their residence at Westtown the committee au- 



PHILIP PRICE. 45 

thorized many improvements : that of building a wall round 
the girls' garden, but so as not to intercept the view ; the 
planting of trees ; an improvement in the food ; the use 
of cups and saucers instead of porringers ; and above all 
a milder discipline was practiced, and whipping almost 
ceased. This was found to be the better method. The re- 
fractory boy was invited into the library, where sat the su- 
perintendent and several teachers in solemn silence. Some 
kindly words and admonitions were spoken by the superin- 
tendent ; usually the boy was softened, and the conclusion 
was that he might be trusted with a further trial, and thus 
bodily infliction was averted. There was no irritating sys- 
tem of espionage to produce resentment and a more deter- 
mined purpose of retaliation. Superintendent and teachers 
were quick enough in observation, but it was not always 
best to seem to see, or to make too much account of what 
was seen. The bad boy was thus made of more kindly dis- 
position ; was less hardened and fixed in vicious ways. 

The following were the children of Philip and Rachel 
Price: 1. Martha, b. 11th mo. 3, 1785; d. 9th mo. 11, 
1852 ; m. Nathan H. Sharpies. 2. Hannah, b. 3d mo. 26, 
1787 ; d. 1st mo. 10, 1861 ; m. Dr, David Jones Davis. 
3. William, b. 9th mo. 17, 1788; d. 1st mo. 27, 1860; 
m. Hannah Fisher. 4. Sibbilla, b. 2d mo. 19, 1790; d. 
8th mo. 6, 1853 ; m. John W. Townsend. 5. Margaret, b. 
4th mo. 9, 1792 ; d. 7th mo. 15, 1830 ; m. Jonathan Pax- 
son. 6. Benjamin, b. 12th mo. 17, 1793; d. 1st mo. 15, 



46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

1872; m. Jane Paxson. 7. Sarah, b. 11th mo. 6, 1795 ; 
d. 12th mo. 4, 1873; m. Caleb Carmalt. 8. Eli K.,b. 
7th mo. 20, 1797 ; m. Anna Embree. 9. Isaac, b. 11th 
mo. 30, 1799 ; d. 8th mo. 25, 1825 ; m. Susanna Payne. 
10. Philip, b. 7th mo. 7, 1802 ; d. 6th mo. 16, 1870 ; m. 
Matilda Greentree. 11. Rachel, b. 7th mo. 19, 1808 ; d. 
9th mo. 25, 1808. 

The one blank in the record of deaths another hand must 
fill. The survivor leaves it for the posterity of his sisters 
and brothers to continue the family narratives, as they may 
be influenced by the sense of duty. He has had great sat- 
isfaction in tracing their ancestry from their landing on our 
Atlantic shore. In this sketch, and in the centennial 
meeting of the family, he has given the starting-points 
for others. His best wish is that they may have as much 
pleasure in their work as he has had, and as good lives to 
commemorate. His very earnest purpose and prayer have 
been that the examples of Philip and Rachel Price shall be 
kept before their descendants as long as they may continue 
on this earth. (See " Memoir of Philip and Rachel Price, 
and the Family Centennial Meeting in 1864," privately 
printed, distributed, and for distribution among the de- 
scendants.) 

I now approach a great and painful crisis in the Society 
of Friends in America, and that made a crisis in the lives 
of those prominent in the concerns of the society. It 
was the separation, that commenced in overt acts in 1827. 



PHILIP PRICE. 47 

The fact was cause of great sorrow to the well-wishers of 
the stability of order and the best good of general society. 
Friends had been a ballast in the social order. The influ- 
ence of Friends in the whole community was impaired. 
They lost prestige and power ; they appeared not quite so 
near perfection as was supposed ; they were seen to be yet 
human. Partisan feeling became strong. Their strength 
had been in unity : it was wasted now in contest. The 
contestants receded towards opposing ends of an ancient 
and expanded platform that embraced an orthodox faith, 
as it is in the text of the New Testament, and an unprece- 
dented spirituality of interpretation, worship, and divine 
guidance. I would name no names for censure or praise ; 
I have no privilege to be censor of the eminently good. 
Deep sorrow for the fact of separation was now my abiding 
emotion. I was closely observant of the history as it trans- 
pired ; I read it in periodical publications; I have it in 
many volumes, but have no wish even to open one of them 
again. The testimony of witnesses professionally examined 
by me swelled to volumes. It was round me everywhere 
and always for years, but my feelings were not in it. To 
me it seemed the rending of the fairest temple in history, 
the loss of reverence for sacred things and persons, yet 
both parties thought they were striving for sacred doctrines 
and religious rights. 

The controversy was doctrinal, yet there was mixed in it 
a jealousy of the select bodies, whose members, by weight 



48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of influence, had long shaped the proceedings of the meet- 
ings to which all members of the society were freely 
admitted. The select meetings that sat with closed doors 
were the Meeting for Sufferings, that represented the Yearly 
Meeting for all matters that affected the welfare of the 
society for more than fifty-one weeks in the year, and the 
Meetings of Ministers and Elders, that met in connection 
with the Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meetings. Of 
both Philip and Rachel Price had long been members. 

There had been unquestionably much preaching and 
writing among members of the society that leaned towards 
Unitarianism, and that tended to impair its ancient faith in 
the full divinity of our Saviour ; and the Orthodox, in op- 
posing innovations, seemed to recede too exclusively to a 
dependence upon the outward history, the letter of the 
Scriptures, and the vicarious office of Christ in the work of 
human salvation. They were accused of irregularity of 
proceeding, and the opposition was the more effective as 
the Orthodox were backed by English ministers, who little 
regarded the American feeling of independence that was 
naturally offended by their foreign interference. 

To understand the earnest leaders of each party we must 
place ourselves in their respective positions, and, doing so, 
we cannot fail to become more charitable in our judgment. 
On the one hand, the Orthodox believed that their faith 
in the divinity of our Saviour was assailed ; believed that 
their Saviour, who died on the cross that mankind might 



PHILIP PRICE. 49 

be saved, was shorn of his godhead, — a faith dearer to them 
than life. On the other hand, the unorthodox apprehended 
that the great distinguishing doctrine of the inward work of 
Christ in the souls of men was to be largely replaced by a 
relapse towards the orthodoxy of the churches out of which 
their forefathers had come under great persecution and 
suffering. 

No discipline of the Yearly Meeting had provided for 
the emergency of such a separation. The Orthodox pro- 
ceeded to disown those they considered separatists, by indi- 
vidual visitation, as offenders, — offenders who thought their 
visitors the real offenders. That proceeding caused much 
irritation. Such dealing was with little expectation of re- 
clamation, and the visited felt that the form might have been 
dispensed with by a few lines of discipline ordained by the 
Orthodox Yearly Meeting. In this work of disownment the 
kindly nature of Philip Price was severely tasked ; but it is 
believed that he never lost a friend by the performance of 
apprehended duty. Rachel Price took no part in the con- 
troversy ; for years her ministry was much closed. She dwelt, 
under great sorrow, in a Christian quietude and retirement, 
— a result prompted alike by gospel conviction and mater- 
nal feeling. Her children, who had remained Friends, 
took either side about equally. She perceived no change 
of faith in them nor in their Christian life, nor did they 
themselves, or others, perceive them changed in doctrine. 
The love of the parents for children, and of the children 



50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

for parents, was preserved during the lives of all; and 
the survivor of them all, who here testifies to the fact, 
further avers that the memory of our parents has always 
been held sacred and in tender regard by all their descend- 
ants. 

It is needed to explain to others than Friends that they 
were constituted and held in unity as a religious society by 
other ties and for other purposes, as well as to uphold cer- 
tain religious doctrines. True, they could not be true 
Friends without believing fully in the gospel as it is re- 
corded in the New Testament, and that with greater earnest- 
ness and stricter practice than usually pervaded Christianity 
since apostolic days. They had many reforms to make in 
the world, purposes to be more Christ-like, to love their 
fellow-beings more, and to enter into a closer religious 
unity. Love was the badge of the discipleship of Christ, 
and it was meant should be theirs. They eschewed all 
heathen names, banished all worldly compliments, and re- 
verted to an apostolic simplicity of dress, address, and 
sincerity of manners. They swore not at all, for so bidden 
by Christ ; they put the highest value on life, and suffered 
any consequence rather than take human life ; they bore an 
incessant testimony against intemperance, war, and all 
human wrong and oppression. Ten Friends, including 
William Dilwyn, born in New Jersey, with two others, 
formed a committee, who, drawing Clarkson and Wilber- 
force to their aid, by thirty years' persistent labor destroyed 



PHILIP PRICE. 51 

the African slave-trade by the English and other nations. 
In 1688 the few Friends from the Rhine who settled Ger- 
man town started the proposal that the keeping of slaves was 
unchristian. The superior meetings were not then pre- 
pared to act. The small leaven worked on until about half 
a century produced Benjamin Lay, John Woolman, and 
Anthony Benezet ; and in less than another half-century 
slavery was abolished among Friends. Our State, in 1780, 
provided for emancipation, and the Northern States also 
chen and afterwards had become leavened ; and the con- 
summation was Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation of 
all slaves in 1862. And so from William Penn until this 
day all Friends have been the persistent advocates for jus- 
tice to the Indians. In all these regards and other humani- 
tarian purposes there has never been division of sentiments 
among them. What, then, should be the fervent prayer of 
all good men but that all claiming the name of Friends 
should be true standard-bearers of all the testimonies and 
doctrines of ancient Friends, and give their lives to the like 
domestic and social virtues and good works, private and 
public. 

Whilst I would inculcate toleration, charity, and kind- 
ness, I would not wish to be understood as desiring to pal- 
liate errors and the loss of influence for good, still less to 
countenance any relapse from an earnest and true Christian 
faith. All Friends are to be allowed abstinence from all 
outward forms and ritualistic ceremonies without imputa- 



52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

tion of defective Christian faith, for this proceeds consist- 
ently from their fuller spiritual apprehension of the Chris- 
tian faith, and this most distinguished them from their 
beginning. Their creed has always been the New Testa- 
ment itself, read under the light of the Holy Spirit, given to 
all men for their guidance. They accept the words of the 
Scripture as the best outward means of transmitting 
thought, but have also with thjem the Spirit that gave forth 
the Scriptures, which is the witness within themselves to 
enable them to understand the Scriptures and to become 
real professors of the Christian faith ; and rightly followed 
they will abide by the Scriptures as the best outward evi- 
dence of truth, and will preserve from going astray by 
speculation, and in moral conduct. (See Barclay's Apol- 
ogy, Exposition III.) They adhere to the Scripture lan- 
guage more closely than the orthodox churches. They 
use not the terms " trinity," nor the three "persons" in 
the trinity, for they find them not in the New Testament ; 
yet as fully as those churches believe in the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost do they believe in them, but will not 
fetter the teachings of the Holy Spirit more than is done 
by the outward words necessarily used to transmit the his- 
tory and faith of Christianity. 

If permitted to one not a member, but all his long life 
very familiar with the lives, conversation, preaching, and 
writings of Friends, he would give his own intellectual ap- 
prehension of this fundamental part of their faith. M God 



PHILIP PRICE. 53 

is a Spirit;" in Christ " dwelleth all the fullness of the 
godhead bodily ;" " the Holy Ghost ;" all these words ex- 
press God,, who is a Spirit ; one God, one Holy Spirit, eter- 
nal ; yet manifested differently unto men, yet never less than 
God, who is a Spirit. The " word" " was in the beginning 
with God ;" " the word was God ;" " the word was made 
flesh and dwelt among us." " This is the true God and 
eternal life." Jesus said, " I and my Father are one." 
Thus one was the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. This 
" God is love," who sent his only-begotten Son into the 
world that we might live through him. " God dwelleth in 
us, and his love is perfected in us ;" and Jesus said, " the 
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will 
send in my name, he shall teach all things." " Which is 
Christ within you, the hope of glory." " And we are in 
him that is true, even his Son Jesus Christ." Now I have 
apprehended that Friends have always held to the high 
standard of such Scripture, and that when men have fallen 
from such Scripture they have devised a creed or philoso- 
phy in their own wisdom. If we believe that nature had 
a cause, and that such cause transcended all matter, we 
may well believe that that cause was mental, spiritual, and 
able and willing to condescend to visit in love his creatures 
in the ways he thought best, and that there is therein no 
more puzzle or mystery involved than that God is, and 
could create man and endow him with mind, thoughts, and 
affections, in their best estate, kindred to his own, for he 



54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

is Almighty. Yet truly all is wonderful, and the manner 
thereof above our comprehension. True Friends were never 
Socinians. For these views no one but the writer is re- 
sponsible. All they are worth is the truth that may be 
found in them. 

Philip and Rachel Price were by nature constitutionally 
cheerful and of vigorous health. In religion they were 
profound in sympathy with the sufferings and contumelies 
endured by our Saviour, and ever had deepest sorrow for 
the errors and sins of their fellow-beings. Their exercises 
in worship were very solemn, and the plaintive and persua- 
sive tones of our mother in her ministry showed how deeply 
she was moved ; how charitable towards human infirmity ; 
how she yearned to gather her hearers under the wing of a 
divine protection. Yet in the consciousness of duty per- 
formed they had precious consolations. In the visitations 
of the Comforter had comfort beyond the power of human 
expression. And most pleasant and refining was it to them 
to cherish the religious fellowship of the good, and to re- 
new the sweet memories of the righteous laborers and the 
saintly martyrs who had gone before them to blessed 
rewards. 

The space allotted permits no further expansion of this 
summary sketch. Other volumes privately printed for the 
descendants of Philip and Rachel Price have fulfilled that 
duty. Chester County has a precious history in the lives 
of a host of Friends who have lived and died within her 



PHILIP PRICE. 55 

boundaries ; many, very many, without a record to preserve 
their memory ; yet it is to be hoped that the names of 
many will be found in " The History of Chester County," 
and a clear gain it will be to humanity and religion. 

Philip Price died 2d month 26, 1837 ; Rachel Price, 
8th month 6, 1847 ; both in their residence on Union 
Street, West Chester, and their remains were placed next 
each other in the old burial-ground at Birmingham, the 
place marked by a cedar planted by their son and head- 
stones now permitted to appear a little above the surface. 

There, in sacred seclusion, rest their remains ; there, 
where the war once raged, the cannon roared, and the 
mingled blood of foes stained the soil ; there where, since 
the conflict, the spirit of peace has dwelt for more than a 
century ; there the solitary bird now broods undisturbed in 
branches that shade their graves ; there sits the plaintive 
dove, emblem of innocence and of their lives ; symbol of 
the Holy Spirit, type of the Church of Christ, and of the 
soul's resurrection. 



ELI K. PRICE. 4 



Every branch of the ancestry of Eli K. Price is 
traced through the blood of Friends to the settlers of 
Pennsylvania who came over with William Penn, chiefly 
from Wales and England, but partly from Ulster, in Ire- 
land, and the Palatinate of the Rhine, whence came the 
first settlers of Germantown. He is the son of Philip and 
Rachel Price, of Chester County, and was born at a spot 
within view of Brandywine battle-ground, on the 20th day 
of July, 1797. His early education was obtained at 
Friends' Westtown School, in that county. His business 
training was in the shipping-house of Thomas P. Cope, and 
as a student of law with John Sergeant, Esq., he laid the 
foundation for a course of study which he has continu- 
ously pursued since his admission to the Philadelphia bar. 
on the 28th day of May, 1822. While in the counting- 

* Prepared by Wm. E. DuBois, assisted by J. S. Price as to legal 
matters. 

57 



58 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

house lie thoroughly familiarized himself with shipping 
and commercial law, and afterwards grappled with the 
harder law of real estate. It was in the latter that the 
public have most made their demands on his services. He 
has served the people of Philadelphia in the State revenue 
boards of 1845 and 1848; in the State Senate, 1854, '55, 
'56; and for the past fourteen years as commissioner of 
Fairmount Park. 

About 1844. the year of our tl Native American" riots, 
disastrous in fires and bloodshed, it became obvious to 
many independent and public-spirited citizens that radical 
remedies were needed for the agglomeration of our muni- 
cipal corporations, seldom in accord and frequently hostile. 
Philadelphia was not then a name that represented the 
strength and power of a great metropolis, neither for her 
own progress nor in her comparison with sister-cities. 
Composed of narrow sectional divisions, which acted not in 
their united strength, but with their power neutralized by 
want of concert and jealous hostilities, with contiguous 
boundary lines, criminals escaped pursuit, and volunteer 
fire companies fought the battles of their sectional hostili- 
ties in our streets with deadly missiles and firearms, and 
conflagrations were even lighted for the entertainment of 
firemen visitors. We could consummate no great internal 
improvements, could make no great water-works, nor 
create a Fairmount Park, owing to the jealous fear of some 
part acquiring local advantages over others. No political 



ELI K. PRICE. 59 

party dared to assume the responsibility of coping with a 
task so formidable as to combine the heterogeneous ele- 
ments, and to impress the strength of all into harmonious 
action demanded for the general good. To meet these great 
wants Mr. Price was sent to the Senate for three years, 
and Matthias W. Baldwin and William C. Patterson to the 
House of Representatives for one year, to provide an ade- 
quate remedy, and the three were elected over the regular 
candidates of both political parties. 

The result was the new charter for the city of Feb. 2, 
1854, called the " Consolidation Act," which united about 
a dozen corporations, including the county of Philadelphia, 
of 122 square miles ; and the further consequences have 
been that a population of nearly a million people has since 
acted in the strength of its unanimity; has advanced 
largely, even through a period of great manufacturing and 
commercial prostration, its trade, transporting power, and 
financial stability ; has approximated towards a great sys- 
tem of water supply ; a police force was maintained here in 
July, 1877, that prevented a worse destruction than that 
of the Pittsburgh riots, with a Park unsurpassed in area 
and beauty, wherein the Centennial International Ex- 
hibition was held. The history of the consolidation was 
written and published by Mr. Price in 1873, containing 
137 pages, dedicated to our venerated citizen, Horace Bin- 
ney, whose father, Dr. Barnabas Binney, like Franklin, 
came to us from Massachusetts. The valued conservatism 



60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of Mr. Binney, after long experience and much reflection, 
yielded to the judgment of the necessity of the great mu- 
nicipal change. 

More than a year before Mr. Price went to the Senate he 
had, at the request of Governor Bigler, prepared a bill for 
an act entitled " An act relating to the sale and conveyance 
of real estate," with the following preamble. " Whereas, 
The general welfare requires that real estate should be freely 
alienable, and be made productive to the owners thereof," 
and " Whereas, In matters which the judiciary is compe- 
tent to hear and decide it is expedient that the courts should 
adjudicate them after a full hearing of all parties, rather 
than that they should be determined by special legislative 
acts upon an ex^arte hearing." The evils had been that 
real estate was extensively bound by trusts that made vacant 
ground and dilapidated buildings inalienable in title, which 
kept it out of the market and unproductive and unimprov- 
able by the owners or purchasers, without a special act of 
Assembly, and in some instances such act would not avail. 
The courts for remedy were enabled to make decrees to 
sell, lease, mortgage, and convey on ground-rent, or to en- 
able the trustees to build, and the reservation of rents and 
the purchase moneys were substituted, with security, for the 
land sold on the limitations of the original trusts. Thus 
the present generation got a better living without loss to 
the succeeding owners of the trust property ; the dilapida- 
tions, like those that tell of long chancery suits in England, 



ELI K. PRICE. 61 

have disappeared ; our city has been improved and beauti- 
fied and business accommodated; the public revenue by 
taxes is increased, and unfettered titles are carried into the 
world's commerce for the most profitable uses ; purchasers 
holding titles already adjudicated are purged of legal ques- 
tions. The act has been in force since April 18, 1853, and 
is popularly called the " Price Act." Its beneficence has 
been often judicially acknowledged. 

In 1874, Mr Price published a treatise on " The Act 
for the sale of Real Estate," containing 193 pages, as a 
" reading" thereon, embracing the reasons for and the de- 
cisions upon the act. 

In the session of 1855 " an act was prepared by him re- 
lating to corporations, and to estates held for corporate, re- 
ligious, and charitable uses," which became a law on the 
25th of April. Its enactments indicate the evils to be 
remedied. The holding of subordinate offices by corpora- 
tors is declared incompatible, and to be surety for such is 
forbidden, or to be interested in the corporate contracts, 
and to receive gratuities is declared illegal, and is met with 
penalties. Shares in corporations are declared personalty, 
the annual income and estates held limited ; the manner of 
holding property for religious purposes is regulated ; dispo- 
sitions of property for charitable and religious uses are not 
to be lost by the death, etc., of the trustee, but a trustee is 
to be supplied and to exercise the discretion given, and if 
the object ceases, a kindred one is to be selected ; and dis- 

6 



62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

positions to charity and religion are required to be made a 
calendar month before death. — P. L. 328. 

On the 28th of April, 1855, an act prepared by Mr. 
Price was passed entitled " An act to amend certain defects 
of the law for the more just and safe transmission and 
more secure enjoyment of real and personal estate." Es- 
tates in fee tail are to be taken in fee ; intestate estates are 
to reach grandchildren of brothers and sisters, and children 
of uncles and aunts, and by representation of their parents ; 
partitions may be made by three or more commissioners, ; in 
litigations as to realty, title out of the commonwealth is to be 
presumed after thirty years' possession ; after title had been 
held for twenty-one years by a purchaser from a corpora- 
tion who had held it defeasible by the commonwealth the 
latter is barred ; ground-rents, annuities, or other charges 
upon real estate unclaimed for twenty-one years are barred ; 
lessees are enabled to mortgage their leasehold. — P. L. 368. 

On the 10th of May, 1855, an act prepared by Mr. 
Price was passed " relating to certain duties and rights of 
husband and wife, and parents and children." This act 
sprung from feelings often awakened in professional prac- 
tice by observing how deplorably helpless is the condition 
of virtuous wives with spendthrift husbands, who, while 
possessed of the desire and ability to provide respectably 
for themselves and children, were unable to do so. Though 
a dronish and drinking husband might or might not per- 
sonally meddle and thwart her efforts, the store goods in 



ELI K. PRICE. 63 

her shop and furniture might always be seized for his debts 
and his family cast out, though that debt were incurred for 
the drink that crazed and unmanned him. The act enabled 
the wife to become a femme sole trader ; to own her own 
earnings and dispose of her property while living, and when 
dying, without his interference, and if she die intestate, it 
enabled her next of kin to take it. If by drunkenness, 
profligacy, or other cause he shall neglect or refuse to pro- 
vide for his child or children, the mother shall have all the 
rights of the father and perform his duties ; may place the 
children at employment and receive their earnings, or bind 
them to apprenticeship, without the interference of such a 
husband, in the same manner as the father can now do by 
law ; but if the mother be of unsuitable character, the court 
is to appoint a guardian of such children with like powers. 
A husband guilty of such conduct for a year preceding his 
wife's death forfeits all right to her estate, and also the 
right to appoint a testamentary guardian of his children. 
Persons are enabled by judicial decree to adopt children, 
and give them the rights of lawful children, binding them- 
selves to the duties of parents. — P. L. 430. This law of 
humanity is probably an advance on the statute-book of any 
civilized nation, and was necessary, as these protections were 
not covered by our act of 1848, passed to secure to married 
women their own property. Mr. Price had passed in 1856 
(P. L. 315) sections enabling a deserted or unsupported 
wife, or one divorced from bed and board, to protect her 



64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

reputation by action of slander and libel, and to sue for her 
earnings and property, and to receipt for and give refund- 
ing bonds for legacies and shares of decedents' estates. 

On the 22d of April, 1856, he prepared, and while in 
the Senate procured to be passed, " an act for the greater 
security of title and more secure enjoyment of real estate," 
which cut off all the exceptions to land limitations of 
twenty-one years after thirty years ; requiring all eject- 
ments for land to be indexed, to give notice to purchasers 
and mortgagees also of liens acquired by levies on real es- 
tates ; all trusts to be manifested by writing, except they 
arise by implication ; specific performance, etc., is required 
to be demanded in five years ; wills probated to stand un- 
less objected to within five years, surviving executors and 
administrators to exercise testamentary powers of sale ; 
subrogation to liens are regulated ; and in partition the 
highest bidder is to have choice of shares. — P. L. 532. 
He also drew the act of 1859, which requires action within 
a year after entry made on land to stop the running of the 
statute of limitations in favor of the possessor, and to bar 
the remainder after tenant in tail is barred. — P. L. 603. 

In 1857 he published the " Law of Limitations and 
Liens against Real Estate," pp. 392. He was also the 
author of many acts of municipal legislation, passed with a 
view to the health, comfort, and security of the citizens of 
Philadelphia; among others, that no street or alley is 
ever to be laid out of a less width than twenty-five feet. 



ELI K. PRICE. 65 

If any house now standing on a street narrower than that 
shall be taken down, the owner, in rebuilding, must set it 
back to that regulation. Every new house shall have a 
curtilage of at least 144 square feet of open space. There 
must be a parapet wall of brick or stone between the roofs 
of all houses, extending through the cornices, to prevent 
the spread of fire. A board of building inspectors was 
also created, to see that all buildings are safely erected, and 
in accordance with the strict requirements of law. A 
board of revision of taxes was established to compel 
equality of valuation for taxation, and to supervise all as- 
sessments of property. A survey department, to lay out 
plans for streets, culverts, etc., was also created, to which 
was attached a registry bureau, in which must be registered 
every deed or conveyance of real estate before it can be re- 
corded, with a plan of the premises conveyed, so that no 
property shall escape taxation. And if there be conflict of 
claim of title, it can be promptly known, as no careful con- 
veyancer passes any title without a certificate of search. 
He also prepared most of the sections of the Park Act of 
1868. 

Mr. Price was an earnest advocate for the centennial 
international celebration from the first movement towards 
it. Before the United States Commissioners, the Board of 
Finance, and the representatives of the City Councils and 
the Park Commissioners, early in 1873, he found great de- 
spondency to prevail, and spoke earnestly and effectively to 



66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

infuse hope and courage. At their request he went with 
their deputation to Harrisburg, and there addressed the 
members of both Houses of the Legislature ; and on his 
return he, with others, addressed a town-meeting in Inde- 
pendence Square. The needed legislation and appropriations 
were made by State and city. 

In his eighty-fourth year, Mr. Price is yet giving opin- 
ions on titles, acting as a Fairmount Park Commissioner, 
trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, etc. 

He has for many years been an active member of the 
American Philosophical Society, and is now one of its vice- 
presidents. Its published proceedings bear abundant record 
of his labors in behalf of science, and in " the promotion 
of useful knowledge." Among his works in this field are 
the following treatises : 

1. "The Trial by Jury," written in 1863. 

2. " The Family as an Element of Government," in 1864. 
These two discourses were published as pamphlets in the 
same year. In concluding the latter he tersely apologizes 
for bringing it before the Philosophical Society by saying, 
" Truly there is a philosophy that transcends and compre- 
hends all other philosophies, the philosophy that teaches 
man how to live and how to die." 

3. 4. " Some Phases of Modern Philosophy," written in 
1872. Two discourses. The scope and aim of which may 
be imagined from one initial sentence, " I am a brother to 
dragons and a companion to owls. So Job was constrained 



ELI K. PRICE. 67 

to say in the hour of his great afflictions ; so others now 
say, induced only by speculative philosophy." The philos- 
ophy of Darwin and Huxley is therein thoroughly ex- 
amined and refuted. 

5. " The Glacial Epochs," 1876. 

6. " Sylviculture," 1877. 

But to many minds nothing which he has written can 
surpass in interest two volumes which were printed for pri- 
vate circulation. One was a memoir of a rare and excellent 
couple, his own father and mother, Philip and Rachel Price, 
of Chester County ; the other gave the life and death of a 
daughter, not less attractive in character. The latter, es- 
pecially, contains some thrilling experiences. Both are 
written with a singular judgment and delicacy, warmed, but 
not colored, by an intense and well-deserved affection. In 
fitness of expression they are models of composition. 

It is much to be desired that these family memorials were 
more abundant. Written by intelligent minds and prac- 
ticed hands, with enough of incident to relieve from dull- 
ness, they would form a legacy to coming generations more 
and more valued as time passed along, far more interesting 
and durable than the short record of a tombstone. 



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